On a more serious note you could get that mortgage and buy at the wrong time and still lose money.

From what I understand in the 1920s there was a lot of deflation and some years the prices fell by 7%. No idea what happened to the interest rates. I think before WW2 the interest rates changed every 10 years or something._________________G'Day cobber!

Jyske Bank will effectively pay borrowers 0.5% a year to take out a loan

WTF?

It's not that big a deal, loans devalue normally by the rate of inflation. This is just like adding a bit more inflation... Or perhaps the bank is anticipating deflation, so this effectively offsets some deflation._________________PowerSwitch on Facebook | The Oil Drum | Twitter | Blog

Jyske Bank will effectively pay borrowers 0.5% a year to take out a loan

WTF?

This is pointing to the economic collapse of the EU. Germany has rampant house price inflation because the interest rates are too low and rampant house price inflation always ends with a house price crash and bank defaults as we saw in Ireland and Spain not so many years ago. The ECB can't raise the rates any further because this would lead to defaults in the Med countries, Greece and Italy especially, so they are stuck in a bind of their own making.

The EU will either have to dump the Euro, not a thing that they could countenance, or impose full central government and taxation on the Eurozone countries. EU countries outside the Eurozone would then be "offered" Eurozone membership or second class non voting membership of the EU.

Good job we're on our way out._________________Action is the antidote to despair - Joan Baez

Trump at Davos wind bagged on about US 401k accounts being up, the stock market up, employment being at record levels.

Just about everything he trumped about is bollocks._________________I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker